Recycling, conserving and reducing what we consume are great ways to live green; but there is a new program that's putting families to the test.

"A year long project with four sustainable challenges and the first one we kicked off about a month ago was the energy challenge. We have transportation challenge which will be next. And then food and lifestyle", said Melissa Kadlec with the Duluth Sister Cities.

Right now, there are four families involved in the Climate Idol program. Currently they're focusing on saving energy.

"The energy challenge we had people from Comfort Systems, Minnesota Power, DEEP (Duluth Area Efficiency Project)", said Melissa Kadlec with the Duluth Sister Cities.

The Wattrus family is one of the four involved with Climate Idol. They've already begun to make changes at home.

"We have replaced a number of light bulbs with energy efficient light bulbs...We also went around and working on our windows putting in little strips of insulation along the bottom of the window frame", said Jane Wattrus.

The addition of insulation strips, wrapping their hot water pipes and adding heat shields behind their radiators are all part of the family's overall energy saving plan.

"I think one of the hardest things to do is to try and learn new habits to try to reduce your energy. So for example; take shorter showers, remember to close the blinds at night, things like that", said Nigel Wattrus.

The long–term plan is to have these simple changes become part of a lifestyle so these families can be climate idols for all of us.In Duluth, Meteorologist Jeff Edmondson, the Northlands NewsCenter.